e the cross so well, though I know it would
be good to have it."

"Come, then," said Bratti, fond of laying up a store of merits by
imagining possible extortions and then heroically renouncing them,
"since you're an old acquaintance, you shall have it for two quattrini.
It's making you a present of the cross, to say nothing of the blessing."

Tessa was reaching out her two quattrini with trembling hesitation, when
Bratti said abruptly, "Stop a bit! Where do you live?"

"Oh, a long way off," she answered, almost automatically, being
preoccupied with her quattrini; "beyond San Ambrogio, in the Via
Piccola, at the top of the house where the wood is stacked below."

"Very good," said Bratti, in a patronising tone; "then I'll let you have
the cross on trust, and call for the money. So you live inside the
gates? Well, well, I shall be passing."

"No, no!" said Tessa, frightened lest Naldo should be angry at this
revival of an old acquaintance. "I can spare the money. Take it now."

"No," said Bratti, resolutely; "I'm not a hard-hearted pedlar. I'll
call and see if you've got any rags, and you shall make a bargain. See,
here's the cross: and there's Pippo's shop not far behind you: you can
go and fill your basket, and I must go and get mine empty. _Addio,
piccina_."

Bratti went on his way, and Tessa, stimulated to change her money into
confetti before further accident, went into Pippo's shop, a little
fluttered by the thought that she had let Bratti know more about her
than her husband would approve. There were certainly more dangers in
coming to see the Carnival than in staying at home; and she would have
felt this more strongly if she had known that the wicked old man, who
had wanted to kill her husband on the hill, was still keeping her in
sight. But she had not noticed the man with the burden on his back.

The consciousness of having a small basketful of things to make the
children glad, dispersed her anxiety, and as she entered the Via de'
Libraj her face had its visual expression of childlike content. And now
she thought there was really a procession coming, for she saw white
robes and a banner, and her heart began to palpitate with expectation.
She stood a little aside, but in that narrow street there was the
pleasure of being obliged to look very close. The banner was pretty: it
was the Holy Mother with the Babe, whose love for her Tessa had believed
in more and more since she had had her babies; a